Report of a Gita Satsang - Part 2 of 2.

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Namaste

(Satsang continued)

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Is silent meditation the right sAdhanA?

 

Oh, there are several methods of sAdhanA. But today we are

discussing silent meditation. ‘Atma-samsthaM manaH kRRitvA

na kimcid-api cintayet’ is the recipe. The million-dollar

question here is to really firm up the mind in that

conviction ‘There is nothing other than Atman. Everything

is Atman’. To keep pondering over that Upanishadic

statement, to be analysing the significance of that

statement, to try convincing yourself that that statement

is right, is what nidhidhyAsanA means. The former Pontiff

of Kanchi Kamakoti mutt, well known as the Kanchi

mahAswamigal, used to say, silent meditation will drag you

into pitfalls if you do not adopt the process of

nidhidhyAsanA for a start. Get any famous pronouncement of

the Upanishats, not necessarily the mahA-vAkyas, and try to

assimilate it into your system by contemplating on it and

its meaning and significance. This nidhidhyAsanA practised

over a long period of time -- maybe years -- will finally

end up in that state described in the shloka #25:

‘Atma-samsthaM manaH kRRitvA na kimcid-api cintayet’.

This is the continuing sAdhanA that every aspirant to

spiritual perfection has to do.

 

I may not understand everything you said, but the pitfalls

the Kanchi Swamigal is talking about are very true. I tried

to do silent meditation, but the mind in no time went

crazy. It thought of all impossible things, jumped from one

thing to another and finally, I had to give up!

 

That does happen to many of us. I don’t think you are alone

in that respect. That is why Krishna Himself anticipates

our difficulties and talks about that in the next shloka

#26. Actually the triad of shlokas 24, 25, 26 constitute

one thought process which we have to assimilate together.

Shloka #26 says: Whenever the mind, fickle and unfirm that

it is, slips away from the meditative process, there and

then control the mind, by an effort, and bring it back to

the domain of the Self. In fact this is the ultimate

recipe for countering the faltering mind in meditation.

There is no other shortcut. Throughout the world, in

whatever manner one may learn and practice meditation

techniques, the technique for correcting the mind when it

falters is only this. There is no other way.

 

My Guru has taught me to start my meditation always with a

japa of a mantra. Vocalised japa has a tremendous

potential of not only helping us to concentrate, but at

each turning of the mAlA in counting the japa it takes us

nearer and nearer to God. Once Shri Ramakrishna has said:

it is like identifying the boat lying at the bottom of the

river but linked to the anchor at the shore by a long

chain. We pass from one link of the chain to another and

finally touch the boat itself. Though we start vocalising

the japa, it automatically becomes a silent meditation on

the same japa-mantra, in due course of time -- maybe after

a long practice.

 

Talking of Gurus I have a fundamental question. I am sure

there are others here who must have faced the same

question. What shall we use as a criterion to identify the

right Guru.

 

The thought that we identify the right Guru is itself

wrongly posed. Regarding the concept of a Guru I have

heard it said that it is not the Guru that is as important

as the Faith that you keep in that Guru. The mantra that

he has chosen to give you, the thoughts and ideas that he

has passed on to you, the teachings that he often teaches –

these are the important things. So long as you have faith

in him, that is what clicks. In every Guru Parampara, there

are outstanding personalities. But not all of the paramparA

turn out to be outstanding. It is just because of the

outstandingness of the Faith in their respective Gurus.

 

In fact, more than the Guru one may want to give importance

to what he left back as his message. The characteristic

pithy statements that he is famous for, can be very useful

for a nididhyAsana. ‘Watch the Watcher’ – used to be said

by Swami Chinmayananda all the time. Ramana Maharishi is

famous for his question: ‘Who am I?’. These

mahA-vAkya-like statements can be effectively used for a

nidhidhyAsana.

 

Even worldly-wise statements like “You can be happy only by

giving away to others” may also be good statements for such

contemplation.

 

But in those cases what happens is the mind slowly strays

away from the contemplation of the Self into other worldly

matters. This is what happens in ordinary discussions also

either in a satsang like this or in the electronic media.

We tend to stray away, unknowingly, into verbal

elaborations that take us far away from the Self. Or we may

get lost in the very verbal gymnastics, even about the

Self. That is why it is necessary to take those

statements from the Guru or the scriptures that talk about

the Atman or the Self.

 

All this talk about Guru is certainly very interesting.

But before we finish today I want to raise a question which

we may not pursue today itself, but you may think about it.

Is Meditation the end-goal of spiritual life? In the

history of the land of Bharat, whenever they made bhakti

and dhyana as the dominant goals, India was not at the top

of the world. That was the situation in the middle

centuries. But whenever jnAna and pursuit of knowledge was

the dominant goal – as perhaps in the times of the

Upanishats and the mahabharata, India was the sought-after

goal for the rest of the world also.

 

I am not sure I agree with the statement that India’s

prospects were at a low ebb when Bhakti was dominant in

the culture. It is the period of the bhakti renaissance

that saved India from the impending possibility of

extinction by invading cultures.

 

Well, we are straying from today’s topic. Also the time is

up. So why not keep this as the discussion topic next time

we meet? Thanks, everybody for the discussions today.

LokAs-samastAs-sukhino bhavantu.

 

Om ShAntiH ShAntiH ShAntiH.

-----

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

New on my website, particularly for beginners in Hindu philosophy:

Empire of the Mind:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/ManversusMind.html

 

Free will and Divine will - a dialogue:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/FWDW.html